Safranbolu

North of Ankara, in the province of Karabük, Safranbolu is the best-preserved Ottoman town in Turkey — a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994, and the day-trip in the northern direction, though a long one. What UNESCO protected here is not a handful of fine buildings but an entire Ottoman townscape kept intact: red-tiled houses, cobbled lanes, bazaars, inns, hammams and mosques, arranged as they were centuries ago. The name comes from saffron, the spice grown in the surrounding fields; the town is a vision of timber mansions spilling down its valleys, a piece of the Ottoman world preserved whole.